This invention relates to bibs for babies, and has particular, although not exclusive, application to plastic baby bibs which incorporate spillage scoops at the bottom thereof.
It is conventional practice to provide bibs to protect the clothing of babies or young children which are moulded from a semi-rigid plastics material such as polyethylene or polypropylene, and which incorporate integrally formed spillage collection scoops at the lower regions thereof.
Such bibs are conventionally manufactured by injection moulding techniques utilizing two mould halves one to the front of the bib and one to the rear of the bib.
The mould defines a neck opening and a neck band to the bib the edges of which are at the junction of the two mould halves. As a consequence these edges tend to be relatively sharp, and it is necessary to machine or treat the edges, for example by cutting with a sharp knife, to smooth them down.
Clearly such a procedure adds to the cost and complexity of manufacture.
In use of a bib, the opposed ends of the neck band are releasably secured together at the back of the neck of the baby to retain the bib in position.
The semi-rigid nature of the material of the bib, and the requirement for the bib to be fastened reasonably tightly round the baby""s neck to prevent spillage inside the bib, tend to result in discomfort to the neck of the baby. This discomfort is compounded by the wriggling movement and the like commonly associated with the feeding of young babies and which can result in the edge of the neck band pressing against the baby""s neck. Even though these edges are relatively smooth, the relatively rigid nature of the material can cause the bib to dig into the baby""s neck.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,298 discloses a baby""s bib in which the neck opening of the bib is provided with a cushioned and resilient liner edge comprising a laminate stitched about the neck opening.
It would be desirable to be able to provide a baby""s bib that was cheap and easy to manufacture and which was more comfortable to wear than the current products.
According to the present invention there is provided a baby""s bib comprising a body portion of a plastics material having an opening to receive the baby""s neck, a bead of a plastics material more compressible than that of the body portion being moulded around the defining edge of the opening to be integral with the body portion, and, in use to encircle the neck of the baby, the bead being such as to permit compression of the more compressible plastic material thereof in a direction substantially radially of the bead but to prevent extension of the more compressible material in a direction along the length of the bead.
It will be appreciated that the presence of the softer, more compressible plastics material in contact with the baby""s neck serves to reduce the discomfort that would otherwise exist.
The upper regions of the opening in the body portion may be defined by a pair of strap portions extending from opposed sides of the body portion and adapted to be secured together behind the neck of the baby to retain the bib thereon, the side edges of said strap portions which define said opening comprising said more compressible plastics material.
Preferably the body portion of the bib is of polyethylene or polypropylene and the softer plastics material is a thermoplastic elastomer.
The invention is particularly applicable to bibs the body portions of which include integrally moulded spillage collection scoops at the lower regions thereof.